by Alison Bass | Aug 16, 2022 | Uncategorized
This past weekend, I took a stroll into my past, attending a gathering of old (and new) friends at Bryn Gweled, the intentional community in eastern PA where I grew up. Bryn Gweled was founded in 1940 by far-sighted Quakers who envisioned a rural utopia where members...
by Alison Bass | Jul 28, 2022 | Uncategorized
The setting could not have been more incongruous. Inside a tony home decor store on Martha’s Vineyard, where soothing blues and beiges make one think of ocean breezes and cool martinis, the president of the National Institute of Reproductive Health was talking...
by Alison Bass | Jul 21, 2022 | Uncategorized
I can’t help but laugh at this New Yorker magazine interview with the lawyer Alan Dershowitz, in which he complains about being “cancelled” as a speaker at events on Martha’s Vineyard. I’m amused for two reasons, one, this is old news....
by Alison Bass | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
As some of you may know, I’m moving from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. in late August. Now that I’ve retired from teaching journalism at West Virginia University, I have felt increasingly isolated in the Mountain State, far from family and the...
by Alison Bass | Jul 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
After a two-year hiatus, Edgartown, a town on Martha’s Vineyard, resumed its July 4th celebration with a parade and fireworks over the Edgartown Harbor. The parade route was packed with people of all ages, from young babies to octogenarians and I felt distinctly...
by Alison Bass | Jun 30, 2022 | Uncategorized
In the years leading up to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, you could always find protestors waving signs and yelling at patients going into abortion clinics, particularly those in urban areas where there was easy access to public transit. The protestors were usually...
by Alison Bass | Jun 19, 2022 | Uncategorized
Most of my life I’ve had a strained relationship with my Dad. When we were young, he left most of the child rearing to Mom, and although I strived mightily to win his attention (even running away from home once or twice), I always seemed to fall short. My Dad...
by Alison Bass | Jun 14, 2022 | Uncategorized
Like many young people, Watergate inspired me to become a journalist. But unlike some of my contemporaries, I was lucky enough to find myself reporting on how Watergate affected the Congressional representation in my own hometown, while still a college student. Before...
by Alison Bass | Jun 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
I often think of my best friend Marion, especially when I’m dancing at an outdoors event. I imagine her gazing down at me from one of those high nimbus clouds in the sky, saying, “You go girl!” It was Marion, after all, who taught me how to move and we never...
by Alison Bass | May 31, 2022 | Uncategorized
At a barbecue this weekend, the hostess mentioned that she regularly saw Mike Barnicle, the disgraced former columnist from The Boston Globe, on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough’s daily morning show on MSNBC. This friend had read my memoir, Brassy Broad: How one...
